How to shorten and rename links in Microsoft Teams?

Here’s a question from Monica:

I often use the Microsoft Teams Chat app in order to send links to web pages, SharePoint documents and other Teams channels. The problem is that often times, the link text is pretty long and doesn’t look very neat. Is there a way to rename a link in Microsoft Teams, so that when i insert it into a channel chat conversation, it will show up a shortened hyperlink? I am aware of external services that shorten links, but my question is whether Microsoft Teams has such a built in feature? Any help is appreciated here.

Rename and shorten links in Microsoft Teams

In our answer we’ll show how you can use the Format function in the Microsoft Team chat to shorten and rename links so that they look neater in your group Chat conversation.

In this example, we will assume that you would like to send out a link to a channel in a Teams conversation. Note that the same procedure applies for linking to documents, web pages, SharePoint lists and so forth.

  • In your computer, open the Microsoft Teams app.
  • Search and find a channel.
  • Hit on the More Options button next to the channel.
  • Select Get link to Channel.
  • Copy your channel link.
  • Navigate to the Chat app and hit the New conversation button.
  • Paste your link.
  • Don’t hit the Send button just of yet.
  • Instead, highlight your entire link and from the Chat buttons hit on Format (step 1 below).
  • Now hit the Insert Hyperlink button (step 2 below).
  • The Insert Link dialog will open up.
  • Under Text to display, enter the text you would like to be displayed in the Chat.
  • Don’t modify the Address field.
  • Hit Insert.
  • Voi’la – here’s our pretty shortened link!
  • Now you can go ahead and hit the Send (marked with the arrow) button .

Additional Learning